DAC Beachcroft is targeting further growth in its recently-established advocacy service, after the firm hired two barristers from DWF in January 2021. At the start of the year, DACB set up an in-house advocacy unit, hiring Jonathan Robinshaw and Sahar Farooqi as partners in DACB’s claims solutions group, tasked with overseeing the new advocacy unit. […]
The general counsel of Augusta Ventures has left the business for a new in-house role, little more than a year after she joined the litigation funder. Frances Coats will become Europe general counsel of Bolttech, a digital insurance broker launched last year as a result of the rebranding of formerly known Frank Insurance by its […]
The Supreme Court has substantially allowed an appeal brought by HSF client, the Financial Conduct Authority, in a highly-anticipated judgment over Covid-related business losses. Today’s judgment brings guidance for businesses and the watchdog as to whether certain business interruption policies linked to the pandemic relate to losses. Crucially, it means that businesses can make claims to […]
Clyde & Co has hired a team from Norton Rose Fulbright for its Munich launch, as the firm refocuses on international growth amid ongoing leadership wrangles. This is the latest development from a firm that revealed just before Christmas that its senior partner Peter Hirst would be stepping down early from his role. Its latest […]
Kennedys has opened its 12th office in the UK, after bringing in a 36-person insurance team from a local firm. The firm’s Leeds office will also be its 42nd opening globally, after it reached an agreement to take over Langleys’ insurance group. The new office will be headed by David Thomson, who was managing partner […]
Slaughter and May, Clifford Chance, Herbert Smith Freehills and Ashurst are among the firms that have been enlisted on blue-chip British insurer RSA’s £7.2bn takeover from Canadian insurance group Intact and Denmark’s Tryg. The board of the FTSE 100 company has accepted an offer of 685p a share in cash as well as an 8p […]
Our “trends” series was born out of a desire to help in-house lawyers with their horizon scanning and assessing potential risks. Each post focuses on a specific area, providing companies and their lawyers with quick summaries of some of the challenges heading their way. This latest piece in the series was carefully curated by one of our experts – DWF partner Claire Bowler, who looks at the top 3 issues that legal teams in the insurance sector should be preparing for over the coming months.
Clyde & Co has closed its insurance hub in Oxford, with staff set to relocate to either Manchester or Bristol. The professional indemnity team previously based in Oxford will move to Bristol, combining with Clydes’ existing team to create a 15 strong group led by Tony Nurse-Marsh, Jim Taylor, and Phil Evans. Former partners Clive […]
DAC Beachcroft has targeted BLM for an insurance team hire again, this time in Belfast. The firm has taken on five BLM insurance partners, made up of Peter Campbell, Fintan Canavan, Alison Cassidy, Paul MacAllister and Aine Tyrrell, nearly a year after striking at the firm in Scotland. DACB launched in Northern Ireland in July […]
In one of the biggest cases in 2020, Devereux Chambers’ Colin Edelman QC was a key cog for the Financial Conduct Authority in its business interruption dispute. The novel case was borne out of the nationwide lockdown, which caused businesses across the country to close. The FCA, instructing Edelman and a team from Herbert Smith […]
Kennedys is set to open its 40th office agreeing to take on all the staff at Israeli firm Zelichov Ben-Dan & Co. The firm will be joined by all partners and staff at the firm, who are based in Tel Aviv and are one of the top insurance firms in the country. Zelichov and Kennedys […]
The High Court has ruled in favour of the Financial Conduct Authority, arguing on behalf of a group of policyholders, in a dispute over whether coronavirus-induced shutdowns should be covered by insurance policies. The FCA, instructing Herbert Smith Freehills, brought a series of test cases on an expedited basis to resolve uncertainty as to whether […]